By: Jason Cooke | Follow me on X @cookejournalism
Jeremy Swayman denied the Florida Panthers have a mental edge over the Boston Bruins. Head coach Jim Montgomery begs to differ. The Bruins committed six penalties in the first period and three more in the third at the hands of what the Panthers do best. They get under your skin, and they make you pay for it on the scoreboard.
“They’re winning the mental side of the battle on us,” confirmed Montgomery after the Bruins’ 4-3 loss on Monday afternoon.
When Swayman was asked a similar question, he said, “No.” Reporters then swiveled to Brad Marchand’s stall. While he didn’t shut it down as sternly as Swayman, he didn’t think they were “as mentally out of it as the last (Florida) game.” He did, though, admit the Panthers may be making the Bruins think too much.
“Sometimes you stretch against teams where you kind of grip your stick a little bit and it can affect your game, and it goes both ways,” Marchand continued. “But at the end of the day, we need to be better in a few areas, and we’ll work on it moving forward.”
But the fact of the matter is the Bruins again fell to their new rivals—this time at home—and it came against a Panthers team that didn’t include star players Aleksander Barkov (lower body) and Matthew Tkachuk (illness). Even without two of their bigger facilitators, the Panthers’ plan still worked to perfection. They lured the Bruins into feeding into the post-whistle pleasantries, and it ultimately cost the Bruins two points.
The Bruins took six penalties in the first period on Causeway Street, compared to Florida’s four. It all started when A.J. Greer boarded David Pastrnak, signaling Pavel Zacha to drop the gloves with Greer. It was the one penalty Montgomery didn’t have an objection to.
“I love what (Zacha) did,” Montgomery said. “He went in and defended him—that’s great. But the penalties after that, I mean it’s just undisciplined…you can’t win hockey games that way.”
The Charlie McAvoy cross-checked Carter Verhaeghe. Pastrnak interfered with Sam Reinhart. And while Florida’s Nate Schmidt was sent to the box for roughing in an ensuing fight with Marchand, so was Boston’s captain. Before the Bruins realized it, two of their best players were in the penalty box. Paul Maurice and the Panthers will happily place Schmidt in the box if it means the Bruins will be without Pastrnak and Marchand in exchange.
This is what the Panthers do, and they’ve done it to the Bruins time and time again. Heck, it’s what they did not even a week ago in Boston’s season opener. The Bruins took three penalties—as opposed to Florida’s two—in the first period that was the catalyst for the Panthers to take a 4-1 lead. On Monday, that lead was smaller at 2-1, but still a lead nonetheless.
Still, Marchand doesn’t think discipline is an issue for this Bruins team against the Panthers, and he stood by Zacha’s decision to stick up for Pastrnak early in the game.
“It’s something we’ve always done, is stick up for each other,” he said. “It says a lot about how much we care about one another and want to protect each other. It goes around the room and it’s not always your turn, but when it is you need to step up. That’s how you build chemistry.”
So for the Bruins, it’s all about drawing the line, a line that Florida seemingly does a great job at blurring. While it is important to establish a competitive stance that doesn’t allow the Panthers to walk over you, it is equally important for the Bruins to not get caught up in trying to “get even.” It’s a point of emphasis in the locker room, according to Mason Lohrei.
“We’ve talked about it in here—being hard to play against in between the whistles, and then let them take the dumb penalties,” said Lohrei. “I think we got to live by that one a little more.”
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